1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for bleaching clothes and, more particularly, relates to techniques for "stone-washing" clothes and thereafter further bleaching the clothes at selected locations to create a "worn" appearance.
2. Description of the Background
Blue jean manufacturers have known for a long time that the public frequently prefers to purchase a garment that appears worn or used, rather than appearing new. Accordingly, blue jean manufacturers frequently fade new garments with a bleaching solution such as potassium permanganate. In order to obtain the desired effect, these garments are frequently "stone-washed" by the garment manufacturer or its agent, such that the garments when sold have a generally faded or "old" appearance.
Stone-washing of garments has become increasingly popular in the past decade. This process generally consists of exposing the garments, such as jeans, to a combination of a bleaching liquid and an abrasive material, so that the jeans become both faded and appear to have been worn. The abrasive action obtained by stone-washing may be generated by various techniques, including (1) tumbling the garments with an abrasive stone, metal, or plastic material in a "dry" process, (2) tumbling the garments in a washing machine wherein the internal walls of a washing machine cylinder have been previously abraded by a volcanic rock, (3) washing the garments in water containing pumice rock, as generally described in German specification No. DE 129699, or (4) agitating the garments in water and pumice sand, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,887.
Although stone-washing is widely used, garments treated by this process do not have the desired look and appearance of used garments. Since stone-washed garments are not as desirable in appearance as garments which have been actually used for extended periods of time, some members of the public buy new garments or stone-washed garments and further bleach the garment to create a more used appearance. This process, however, generally tends to excessively bleach the garment or portions thereof to which the bleach is applied, so that the resulting product still does not have the desired worn or "lived-in" appearance. Moreover, the garment will have usually have wrinkles in areas where the bleach is applied, so that the garment is not uniformly treated and "streaks".
The garment may, of course, be actually worn for extended periods of time by the purchaser to obtain the desired worn or lived-in look, but obtaining this appearance takes a great deal of time. Moreover, the garment frequently tends to deteriorate or becomes soiled with a material which cannot be washed out of the garment as the garment is worn over this extended period of time, so that often the garment obtains the desired "lived-in" appearance just about the time that the garment tears or otherwise becomes ruined.
One technique used by garment manufacturers to create a desired worn appearance in garments is to stone-wash the garment, then shot blast selected areas of the garment which would normally be subjected to greater wear by the user. The treated garment thus does appear to have been previously worn by a person, since it is actually abraded in selected areas. Unfortunately, this shot blasting operation does significantly wear the material of the garment, and accordingly the tear and tensile strength of the garment material is substantially reduced in the shot blasted area. The garment when actually worn by the user thus has an increased likelihood of being torn in the area where the garment was shot blasted to create the desired effect. Moreover, shot blasting is time consuming and expensive, so that the cost of garments treated according to this process is high.
The disadvantages of the prior art are, however, overcome by the present invention, and improved methods and apparatus are hereinafter disclosed for giving garments a worn appearance by selectively spraying areas of the garment with a bleaching solution, such as potassium permanganate, while the garment is inflated with gas.